10Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. 11For Amos says, ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.’”
12Amaziah also said to Amos, “You seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there, 13but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”
14Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman, and a farmer of sycamore figs; 15and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
Amos’ voice was not the only voice heard in his day. Like in our world today, there were many different voices speaking in society competing for people’s attention. One such voice was that of Amaziah, the priest of Bethel. Amos 7:10 says, “Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.’”
Amaziah, who as the priest was claiming to speak for God, rose up and opposed Amos and the message that he was proclaiming. He told King Jeroboam that Amos was a radical and a trouble-maker. You can picture Amaziah going into the King’s chamber and saying, “Amos is spreading lies to make the people rise up against you King Jeroboam! He is preaching a very disruptive message.” Now Amaziah is a good persuader, because he convinced Jeroboam to banish Amos. It is no wonder that Amaziah intervened and tried to stop Amos preaching. It was a hard message to hear, but the people needed to hear it. Despite being banished Amos continued to preach the message that God gave to him!
Like in the time of Amos, there will always be people ready to tell our generation whatever they want to hear and perhaps not what they need to hear. As followers of Jesus, we must let God’s Word instruct us, guide us, teach us, change us and not the other way about. If we let God’s Word guide us, we will hear not only what we want to hear but also what we need to hear. And that was Amos’ job! Amos was sent to confront the sins of God’s own people; not just the sins of other people.
Amaziah and King Jeroboam ignored the spiritual condition of the people and defended the status quo! But Amos was sent by God to challenge the status quo! To challenge the injustice! To challenge the spiritual condition of the people! Amos was sent to warn the people of God’s impending judgement in order that they may forsake their sin, seek the Lord and live! And whenever you are God’s messenger, as every follower of Jesus is, that sometimes means you are going to be bringing a powerful, life-giving message, but it’s not going to make you very popular to the crowds of people. Like Amos, we must be ready and prepared for opposition.